Safety-seat.



PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906.

W. H. A. LEWIS.

SAFETY SEAT.

APPLICATION FILED mm. 26. 1905.

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W. H. A. LEWIS.

SAFETY SEAT.

APPLICATION 311.21) JUNE 26, 1905.

3 SHEETS SHEET 2.

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WILLIAMH. A. LEWIS, 0F EVANSVILLE, INDIANA.-,

SAFETY-SEAT.

g No. 823,690.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM HENRY A BERT LEWIS, a citizen of the UnitedStates,- residing at Evansville, in the county of Vanderburg. and Stateof Indiana, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements inSafety-Seats; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to safety-seats designed more especially for usein operahouses, theaters, and other places where large audiencescongregate, but which are capable of use in other places and for otherpurposes.

. One of the principal objects of myinvention is to provide a seat whichcan be uickly folded into compact form both lateral y and vertically inorder to provide aisles or passage-ways in both directions in anaudit0-' rium in order that in cases of emergencies, like a fire or inproviding a quick exit after a performance, the passage-ways in bothdirections across the auditorium may be quickly provided to permitpersons to readily pass outward to the door.

Another object is to provide a seat of this character which will permitready access to the seat by passage-ways running in opposite directionswhen the seat is unoccupied, thus obviating the necessity of disturbingpersons who may be seated in adjoining seats. 7

Still another object is to provide a laterallyfolding metallic chairseat and back which maybe quickly folded laterally to provide spacebetween seats running in opposite directions to the usual aisles whichpass from the entrance-door to the stage.

-' These and other objects are attained by means of theconstruction-illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Flgure 11s a perspectlve v1ewof a seat or chair made in accordance with myinvention.

Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of one side member of the chair or seat.

Fig. 3 is a similar view of the other side of the seat or chair. Fig. 4is a plan view of the seat portion'of the chair. Fig. 5 is a detailsectional View through one of the legs and showing the means foradjustingthe roller orc'aster. Fig.

6 is a transverse sectional view of the seat in .folded or closedposition. Fig. 7 is a front elevation of theseat opened orextendedinSpecification of LettersPatent';

Applicationfiled Tune 26, 1905. Serial No. 267,125.

Patented-June 19, 1906.

position for use; and Fig. is a detail sectional view taken on line 8 8,Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings for a more particular description of myinvention, the nu- .mer al 1 designates. the front leg of the seat, and2 is the rear leg, which extends u' Ward and is formed integrally with.the 'bac' -support 3. Gross-bars 4 and 5 extend ii'om one legto theother and brace them apart. The

legs at their lower ends are provided with recesses 6, into which feet 7are secured by bolts cured to the floor. The recess in thefront leg ofthe chair is deeper than the one at the I rear, the purpose of which isto permit a vertical adjustment, of the foot to compensate for the pitchof the floor of the auditorium. The cross-bar 5 is provided with anenlargement 10, through which'an aperture 11 extends, and mountedu-ponlugs 12 at the sides of this aperture is a beveled gear 13, adapted tomesh with a similar gear 14, jourp 8, said feethavingflanges 9, adaptedto be senaled upon a stub-shaft or bolt 15, extending through thecross-bar 5 and serving asa shaft for this beveled gear. A lever 15extends outward from this beveled gear and may be formed thereon orsecured thereto in any suitable manner,-

Secured to or formed on the beveled gear 13 is a brace-bar 16, providedwith a rule-joint 17 and connected to a similar brace 18, pivoted at itsopposite end to the other side of the chair. Upon the cross-bar 4 asimilarlyjointed brace 20 is pivoted between lugs 21, and aconnecting-bar 22 extends from one pair of the jointed braces to theother, said connecting-bar having a hat-hook 23 formed thereon orsecured thereto.

The opposite member of the chairseat is similar to the one alreadydescribed, the differences, however, being that instead of the beveledgears the member of the jointed lever upon that side is pivoted to lugs24, and rollers 25 26 areprovided instead of feet at the lower ends ofthe legs. The roller 25 for the front leg is seated in a slot 27 in theleg,

and this roller may be adjusted vertically to compensate for theadjustment of the foot in the opposite frontleg and to make allowancefor the pitch of the floor in the auditorium. The front and rear legsare connected by arm-rests 28. I I

The seat portion: of the chair, comprises two side bars 29, pivotallyconnected at their ,rear ends to a lug 30, extending outward from therear legs, and at their front ends said bars are adapted to rest in alug 31, provided with a seat 32 for said side bar when the seat isadjusted in position for use. The side bars 29 are each provided withlugs 33, and extending through these lugs is a pintlerod 34. A thinsheet-steel plate 35 is connected to the pintle-rod 34 by means of lugs36, bent around the pintle-rod between the lugs on the side bar. Thelugs 36 extend some distance toward the center of the plate and aresecured around the pintle by means of rivets 37. The sheet-steel plate35 at its opposite side from the side bar of the chair is provided witha series of lugs 38, bent around a spring-rod 39, extending from back tofront of the chair-seat, said lugs being secured to the rod by rivets40. A plate 41, similar to the plate 35 ,is hinged to the rod 39 and isprovided with a series of lugs that alternate with the lugs 38. The rod39 at its ends is rigidly connected to the end lugs on the plates 35 and41 in any desired manner. As shown, the rod 39 and the end lugs on theplate 41 and the plate 35 are pressed to flatten out the ends of the rod39 and the bearing portion therefor. The purpose of this construction isto give to the rod 39 a torsional actionhaving a tendency to close thetwo plates 35 and 41 one against the other, so that they would occupy afolded position and insure a uniform movement of said plates when theseat is being folded laterally. The ends of the rods 39 being rigidlyconnected to the plates 35, when the chair-seat is opened to theposition shown in Fig. 7 the rods 39 are twisted, and thus have atorsional tendency to return the seat to its folded position. (Shown inFig. 6.)

Extending across from one side bar to the other of the seat are a seriesof plates similar to plates 35 and 41 and connected together in asimilar manner by torsional spring-rods 39, the arrangement of saidplates being such that each alternate pair of plates will fold togetheroppositelythat is to say, plates 35 and 41 folding upwardly, the nextpair of plates will fold downwardly, as will be understood-and all theplates will be so connected by the torsional spring-rods 39 that thetorsional action will be exerted when the seat has been extended inposition for use, so that when it is to be closed up or folded laterallythe tendency to fold will be uniform between all the plates.

The back of the chair is composed of thin sheet-metal plates hingedtogether in the same manner as the seat.

A foldable seat or chair-back made as described may be used withoutupholstery, if desired; but I have provided means for connecting acover, which may be of plush, leather, or other suitable material, tothe sheet-metal sections of the seat or back. This may be accomplishedby means of U- shaped clips 42, adapted to clasp the edges of the cover43 and hold it in position to cover the plates forming the hingedmembers of the seat or back. When securing a cover to the seat, acertain fullness will be allowed in the material to compensate for themovement at the hinged portions, as will be understood.

The operation of my invention may be described as follows: When thechair is in folded position, the lever 1 5 may be thrown back ward tooperate the beveled gears and to throw the jointed bars 16 intohorizontal position and at the same time to extend the seat, as will bereadily understood. The opposite movement of the lever 15 will fold thesheet-metal strips of the seat and back together and move the jointedbars, as will be readily understood.

From the foregoing it will be obvious that my seat may be used toadvantage as a school-desk by merely securing a desk-top to the back ofthe chair near its upper end, and thus making it ossible to give extrafloorspace in case of fire or in any condition which will require asudden clearing of the room.

Moreover, by folding the sidesof the chair together facility is givenfor sweeping and cleaning the floor of the room or auditorium.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a seat of the character described, a chair-frame comprising twoside members, one of said members being rigidly secured to the floor andthe other member adapted to move to and from said rigidly-securedmember, feet secured to the lower ends of one of said members, and oneof said feet being vertically adjustable, the other side frame beingmounted on rollers, one of said rollers being adjustable, a foldablechair-seat, jointed brace-bars pivoted to cross-bars below the seat, andmeans for moving the brace-bars to draw the movable member toward therigidlysecured member to fold the chair, substantially as described.

2. In a safety-chair, the combination of a rigidly-secured frame, amovable frame, a foldable seat and back, jointed brace-bars pivotallyconnected to cross-bars under the seat, beveled gears mounted on therigidlysecnred frame, and a lever formed on one of said gears for movingthe movable frame toward the rigidlysecured frame, substantially asdescribed.

3. A chair-back comprising a lurality of sheet-metal plates hinged togetier by torsional spring-rods '7' chair-seat comprising a plurality ofthin sheet-metal sections, the outer sections being connected to theside bars of the chair-seat and the intermediate sections beingconnected to torsional springrods, said rods being secured rigidly toend lugs of the sections, for the purpose described.

4. A chair-seat comprising side bars, a plurality of sheet-metalsections connected together and to the side bars of the chair-seat,

ing a torsional stress in opposite directions,

substantially asdescribed.

5. A safety-seat of the character described comprising two side fram'es,one of which is adapted to be rigidly secured to the floor and the otherbein mounted on rollers to move in relation to time first-mentionedmember, a foldable chair-seat comprising sheet-metal members connectedto ether by torsional spring-rods, a chair-bac formed of similarconstruction to the seat and means for moving the movable side frame inrelation to the rigid frame and folding the sections of the seat andback together, substantially as described.

6. A chair-seat comprising a series of sheetmetal sections connectedtogether by torsional spring-rods, a cover for said seat, U- shaped class for inclosing the sheet-metal sections an the cover and for holdingsaid cover in place, substantially as described In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WM. H. A. LEWIS. Witnesses:

BENJ. G. OowL,

Jos. N. THOMPSON.

